McLaren boss “absolutely convinced” Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward have F1 potential

McLaren boss Zak Brown revealed that the team will be running IndyCar drivers Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward will be in their Formula 1 car later in the season for practice sessions, as Brown is 'convinced' about their F1 potential.

Brown was quoted by Speed Week, where he revealed that the two will be in the cars after the end of the IndyCar series in September. Even though McLaren don't have an empty seat right now, this will be a good test for the two.

"We haven't made a final decision yet, but we have to use rookies in free practice. After the IndyCar finals in September at Laguna Seca, you will see the two in the Formula 1 environment," Zak Brown said.

Both O'Ward and Palou currently compete in IndyCar, while the latter is leading the championship with Chip Ganassi Racing, O'Ward is sitting third under the Arrow McLaren title. Their performance has been good enough in IndyCar up until now and is the reason why Brown believes they could be behind a Formula 1 wheel sometime later.

"I see no reason to speak against it. We currently do not have a race cockpit available. I am absolutely convinced that both have Formula 1 potential. Palou's form this season comes as no surprise but is nonetheless very impressive. He dominates in the IndyCars, where normally one cannot be dominant. And Pato can also become a champion," Brown said.

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Lando Norris reveals the issue faced by McLaren at Spa

McLaren's performance improved by a lot in the recent races this season, with both their drivers bringing in podium finishes and expanding their lead over Alpine in the championship. However, the Belgian Grand Prix saw them move back to P7 for Lando Norris, in the absence of Oscar Piastri with a first-lap retirement.

Norris had earlier revealed that the issue was with the setup of the car, which was set at high downforce for a wet session. Many teams faced similar issues because of the weather conditions; the entire weekend was wet except for the main race, and this resulted in the teams not getting any dry runs before the race.

Norris mentioned that McLaren could have fixed their downforce issue, but did not opt to do that to perform better in the Sprint. He told RacingNews365,

"In perfect hindsight, we could have tried to find some other solution to reduce the drag on the car. We know how much efficiency we would have shed, we would have removed off the car, but it could be that we wouldn’t have been able to achieve [the Sprint results] if we had made this choice."